PinkRibbons

There was a (true) joke in my family that when I was on the way, my father was actively hoping for a second girl specifically to save on clothing. Unfortunately my sister and I had vastly different body types (she was tall for her age and round, I was small for my age and skinny), so I could almost never wear her hand-me-downs. Instead we dressed exclusively out of thrift stores and having sewing ability was invaluable. I can't count how many skirts had their elastic changed, sleeves and cuffs shortened, darts put in, etc. Not to mention the bunches of clothes that get donated because they get one hole (or stain) and the former owner doesn't want/know how to fix it. We were poor immigrants and I still wore exclusively cashmere sweaters because people were so out of touch with simple repair of quality clothing. All this to say that I agree that sewing machine is potentially a huge factor in the Belcher family finances. Being able to extend the life of items of clothing can save so much money! And Linda may be able to make over some of Tina and even Gene's clothes to suit Louise's style and needs. Louise lives in a dress? That probably has to do with how quickly you can get it on in the morning and the amount of movement it allows. More than once my mother sewed a sweater to a skirt to make a dress.

I knew that bear wasn't dead the second it showed up. And I love what has to be a pretty massive coincidence of this coming out so close to Cocaine Bear (doesn't an episode of animation need at least like, a year's lead-time?)

When it isn't about music or performing, Gene is a pretty sweet, laid-back kid. He seems liked enough at school now, so I think he'll be fine in the future. I mean he's 11 and already self-aware enough to see how he can be annoying to others. I kept expecting the diner who tipped the card to show up at the restaurant having accidentally dropped it, not tipped it at all.

I feel like everyone has at least one childhood adventure that you look back on in complete shock and are astounded that you didn't die. And if your parents ever hear about it it's when you're in your 30s and your mother still nearly loses her shit at what almost happened to her babies. I was not an adventurous kid at all, but I know I nearly drowned, almost got hit by a car or two and was up way too high (or on way too unstable a structure) and could have broken my neck more than once. It was just childhood. Me and my best friend had close calls we never considered anything important until we were looking back from the other side of 20.

Kat has a frikkin' doctorate. I say this as someone with a Jewish mother of my own (although NOTHING like this bitch) - if a Jewish kid gets that kind of academic honor and that doesn't have Sheila in lifelong paroxysms of glee, there's absolutely nothing else Kat can do to get her mother's approval. I don't think Sheila will even let up if she gets a grandchild. I'm starting to think that there's some kind of Freudian(?) mess going on there where Sheila resents Kat for the attention her late father gave her. That's the only explanation I got.

WOW that was an emotional moment. I went from WOO! IT'S COMING BACK! to NOOOO IT'S ENDING?!!! In like 1.5 seconds.

I think Honeybee might be meant to be a little older, like closer to 25. But the thing with Wolf is that while he is very silly, he's actually pretty emotionally mature, which is why marriage seems to suit him so well. He's also got a skill set, a steady job (even if for some reason he couldn't stay on The Mighty Kathleen he could always get work in another fishing operation), some pretty surprising smarts (he CRUSHED that crossword in the Disaster Day episode, not to mention his wilderness survival skills are pretty great), and a good heart. He's a catch. Wolf is kind of the best-case scenario of someone who was parentified. He stepped in to help Beef after Kathleen left (and I'm guessing even before that, since she was such a trainwreck), not only taking care of his siblings but also managing an emotionally distraught father. I bet his teens were probably pretty tough, but maybe his optimism and lack of cynicism is what helped the whole family through it. From stuff that's been said, I would estimate that Kathleen has been gone for four years. I think they mentioned she left around the time Judy had her first kiss, which I think was in 7th grade? So she would have been about twelve, and she turned sixteen in the series premiere.

Max is an idiot just for changing those song lyrics. They're objectively terrible! They felt awkward with the tune, clashed with the guitar, and the French words just made the whole thing sound pretentious but not smart. Also my dude - even if you hadn't played the better version for Kat first, you know you wrote those new lyrics about Brigitte, so why in the hell would you play it in any crowd that includes your new girlfriend? That being said, I am glad to see Brigitte's actress again. She's fun. Interesting to see that Sheila's advice is as crappy as her attitude. Kat should not be blaming herself for Max being a douche, but I guess we can see where she learned to turn someone else's crappy behavior to her into a personal failing.

February 19th. *old codger voice* Back in the day, this show would disappear for months with no word and we'd see it at random when the broadcasting Gods felt like it.

I'm the type of person that grandparents like. It's an absolute death knell when it comes to your romantic life if a young man finds that out before you're in your 30s at least. No boy wants to date someone their parents like, it's even worse if the grandparents like you. I haven't commented on the Sheila/Kat dynamic before because I've always suspected they're trying to do the kind of nonchalant arguing and teasing that is actually fairly typical in Jewish families (I always defended Howard's relationship with his mother on TBBT because I swear to you it was the exact same relationship my father had with his own mother, and there is no way you will convince me they were anything but devoted to each other.) That being said, this is not normal. Sheila is just cruel and they missed an opportunity for Kat to point out that maybe she was looking for attention from Sheila's friends because Sheila is such an utter bitch to her. The dynamic the show is trying to go for doesn't work because the level of vitriol has to be equal for it to be believable that Kat wouldn't just cut her toxic mother out of her life. Kat does serve Sheila back with the occasional insult, but she isn't anywhere near the level of hate Sheila seems to have towards her. I hope this storyline with Sheila being among other older adults makes her ashamed of how she treats her daughter. Engagement ring: when did it become accepted that you would wear an engagement ring all your life? I feel like when I was a kid most married women just wore their wedding bands. I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing any kind of precious gem daily - not only because of the risk of being robbed, but also wouldn't it snag on things? If I were Randi I'd just suck it up and then say it was too precious to wear everywhere after the wedding.

I'm a Californian, so I have to ask - can you actually die from no heating in an apartment during a snowstorm? I mean combine body warmth from the whole family under all their blankets and that seems like it could keep them going through the night. This episode was so uncomfortably close to that specific point in teenagehood when something not exactly stupid (but ultimately not really a big deal) can send you spiraling with anxiety. I've been a tattle-tale my entire life and even I think that the anonymous box was a terrible idea. For one thing, talk about fostering a climate of fear (serious shit this reminds me of my mother talking about only having private conversations in the middle of the woods in the USSR) and for another - easiest way to sabotage anyone you don't like.

GODDAM 😭

The Deity that people worshiped as God was The Authority, yes. I think the idea is that the multiverse is instead powered by Dust, thus making Dust a threat to the Angel who pretended to be the great Creator, leading to the Church cracking down against it.

From The Clouded Mountain Thread: I think the idea was to show that having angels in charge is ultimately a bad idea because they are far from infallible. The Authority was the Big Bad who laid the groundwork for all the oppressive religious regimes, but by this point in the story he is only an angel who has aged to the point of extreme senility. Lyra and Will don't know who he was, and I'm not entirely sure they ever do in-universe. IIRC in the books they just come across his chariot, open it to try and help and see a feeble old angel who basically falls apart at the slightest touch and seems relieved about it. One thing I think the show really misstepped with is not saying explicitly that the angels are actually physically very weak for the most part. Lower-level ones have trouble keeping a corporeal form and do not have much body strength. It's why Balthamos dies after killing Father Gomez. The relatively small physical exertion is too much for him, and it was already very difficult for him to stay together without Baruch. Like the Authority, losing his reason for existing is enough to scatter him to the winds.

Taking this to the book thread.

I've also read that the books are a direct response to Narnia (which I have not read, so this is me talking from a lot of heresay), and the refuting the notion of childhood/children being pure and an ideal state. Dust as a literal representation of consciousness and wisdom is directly attached to the onset of puberty in the books, making the clear point that maturation improves a person by giving them wisdom and knowledge. And then the idea of people receiving wisdom and knowledge from elsewhere is of course terrifying to a controlling system like the Magisterium, which wants to be the center of and final say on all knowledge.

Wasn't there a scene where Lyra said the alethiometer seemed just as confused as her in regards to the journey to the land of the dead? That might be why she doesn't rely on it. It's hard to convey both in the books and the show, so we have to take Word of God for this and try to comprehend it, but it's pretty imperative to remember that Lyra and Pan are the same person. It's hard to see it that way when they seem to be at odds, but when they argue it's genuinely a literal argument with oneself. It's harder to push away the part of your brain saying "don't do it" when it's a corporeal creature saying it to your face. It's possible that if Lyra was trying to stop herself from seeing Roger, Pan would be the one telling her to go. He doesn't necessarily exist to be in confrontation with her, but he does often provide a counterbalance to her. Remember at the start of the series, Pan was far more cautious than Lyra - because a part of Lyra knew she needed to be more cautious.

I would be a poor HDM fan if I didn't mention that the bench at the Botanical Gardens is a real place, and at the moment has a sculpture of Pan and Kirjava sitting behind it. I don't know if it's still there, but I've more than once seen pics where someone has carved "Lyra + Will" into the bench itself.

Mary's using I-Ching divination to tell her where to go. It's powered by Dust (like the alethiometer), and it's guiding her through windows that previous knife-bearers left open until she can get to a world with the safety and resources she needs to make the amber spyglass. I do think the show dragged her journey out too much. I had a bit of hope that they'd show Will's daemon materializing next to Pan as the boat pulled away (it's never shown in the book, but I wanted to see her come into awareness). The thing is, her being there undercuts how awful it was to leave Pan stranded alone. I think that's also why they didn't show Will's loss. Lyra's Great Betrayal needed to stand alone. Maybe next episode starts with Will losing his daemon and her appearing to Pan? I'm a little surprised at the sentiment in the show threads that Lyra is being stupid and selfish for not going to help Asriel and/or Mrs. Coulter. As far as she knows, Lyra doesn't have a stake in this fight. She left Oxford as a child and so far has never had real trouble from the Magisterium or beef with The Authority. What she has had is a mother who designed something of pure evil and is incapable of seeing Lyra as her own person (as opposed to an extension of herself she needs to control), that has a habit of trapping her and hurting her. She also has a father who never showed her anything but indifference (aside from maybe one short moment before he took away Roger) and then deliberately murdered her best friend in the most gruesome way possible. And here Asriel has basically written that moment off as means to an end in a plan that is frankly megalomaniacal, even though he couches it in terms of freedom for all. The books take place pretty non-stop though, so maybe the slower pace of the show is making Lyra seem unreasonable in her quest to help Roger. In the books, it's what - 3 months between Roger's murder and her traverse to the Land of the Dead? It's a really open wound. Anyway, as far as Lyra is concerned, the Magisterium is personified in her mother doing Bad Things and The Authority is some idea her father is passionate about to the point of murder. Why should she listen to a cryptic message from Will's dad about helping her monstrous father instead of following her instincts, dreams and alethiometer to The Land of the Dead? But I guess I'm biased, because I know that what Will and Lyra are heading to do is in fact the Correct Path, no ifs ands or buts about it.

And I'm sobbing.

This was hard to watch knowing the entire cast probably had a broken heart while they were filming.

Will never intended to leave Lyra with her mother, he was bluffing. He had every intention of getting Lyra out, just not Mrs. Coulter. Remember that Will has heard Lyra's story, and Lyra's story has Marisa Coulter kidnapping scores of children and then essentially mutilating them. And no matter what Mrs. Coulter says about how much she loves and wants to protect Lyra, drugging her and imprisoning her is fucked. Will only came into that room to get an idea of where exactly Lyra was in it so he could figure out where to cut through and grab her and Pan. There is a shot of him picking up the knife pieces, and the reason it broke is highly important, but I suspect that will be explained next episode. I gotta love Stelmaria and Asriel fighting about Lyra. She is the "unconscious" part of him talking, the part that doesn't want to pay attention to any parental instinct. It also made me wonder if Stelmaria has maternal feelings for Pan. (Pullman has never described how a daemon comes into the world with their human - I think he actually said he didn't decide it? - but he has said that daemons are named by the daemons of the human parents, which I've always wondered if that means that daemons have familial relationships to each other .)

I think the general idea with daemons is that they do talk, just mostly to their human counterparts. I also think adults simply don't do it as much as someone like Lyra, who likes to have someone to plan and plot with, or maybe they do it in private. The books series only has one daemon that canonically doesn't talk, and that's Mrs. Coulter's - not that it can't talk, just that it doesn't, which adds to the creepy of it. I have to say, I gotta give props to them giving at least a loose explanation for the actors visibly aging. I thought that would be a problem because daemons were supposed to settle essentially with the onset of puberty, but in the Book of Dust series Pullman retconned that to allow for it to happen at an older age. And so technically there's no reason why the TV series can't take place over a longer timespan.

Mayim on this being Leslie's last episode: https://fb.watch/haNQmPuhOO/

Do we have an episode count for season 3?